Thousands of people who gathered in Boston on Saturday, including many from the Pioneer Valley, delivered a powerful message that the hate speech spewed by white supremacists will not be tolerated by the vast majority of Americans.
Stacey Sexton, of Northampton, was among the estimated 40,000 people protesting the “free speech” rally at the Parkman Bandstand on the Boston Common that was attended by perhaps 50 people. Its roster of scheduled speakers included some with ties to white nationalist groups.
“When fascists are out in the street unopposed, all you get is Nazi ideologies without challenge and that’s unacceptable,” Sexton, 27, a member of the International Socialist Organization, told Gazette reporter Emily Cutts.
“We want to say to anyone — Nazis, Nazi sympathizers, fascists, any of those kinds of folks — they are not welcome here. They are not welcome anywhere near us.” Amid the sounds of chants, drums and helicopters above, Sexton added, “I feel empowered, I feel confident.”
The protest in Boston was mostly peaceful, with no significant injuries or property damage reported. There were 33 arrests on charges including disturbing a public assembly, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to Boston Police. A few people threw rocks and urine-filled bottles at officers, but Police Commissioner William Evans attributed that behavior not to the rally-goers or protesters, but to a third group of “troublemakers.” Evans said, “99.9 percent of people here were for the right reasons, and that’s to fight bigotry and hate.”
Mayor Marty Walsh, who had denounced potential speakers at the “free speech” rally who would “spew hate,” tweeted at 5 p.m. Saturday that “Today Boston showed there’s no place for hate in our City. TY to all who peacefully stood up for our values, and the @bostonpolice.”
Walsh said Sunday that as Saturday’s events unfolded, “You could feel the message was beautiful and the signs were great. There were people there that were supporting Black Lives Matter, and there were people against white supremacy, everyone was on the same page. ” He added that the 40,000 protesters were in Boston to “pass a message along of hope and unity and love, which has been incredible.”
The rally and protest in Boston stood in stark contrast to the previous weekend’s violence during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which resulted in the death of one woman and injuries to at least 19 others when a car plowed through a crowd of protesters.
The stand against white supremacy in Boston is particularly significant because of that city’s struggle with racism, most notably with the violent reaction by white residents to court-ordered busing of black students to desegregate the city’s schools during the 1970s. That period produced the iconic photo taken on City Hall Plaza of a white teenager attacking a black civil rights activist with a flagpole bearing the American flag.
Black baseball players have long complained about being the targets of racial taunts by fans at Fenway Park, including an incident in May when Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones reported that he was the victim of a racial slur — a story that was reported nationally.
Last week, Boston Red Sox owner John Henry called for renaming Yawkey Way outside Fenway Park because he is “haunted” by what he characterized as the racist legacy of predecessor Thomas Yawkey. Under Yawkey’s ownership, the Red Sox were the last team in Major League Baseball to field a black player — in 1959, 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
But on Saturday that uneasy history was set aside as blacks, whites and people of other hues rallied together in Boston, holding signs with messages such as “Make Racists Afraid Again,” “One Humanity” and “Only Love Will Make Us Great Again.”
Karen Gardner, a 69½-year-old Jewish woman who lives in Haydenville, says she was in Boston because “I cannot stay home while Nazis and the KKK are marching in the streets of this country. I’m frightened and I will not be scared into silence and stay home.” The message she took home from Boston: “There is hope for us. There really is.”
At a time when the president of the United States is doing more to divide than heal the nation, it is up to the people to take a stand for hope. In Boston on Saturday, 40,000 people — including many of our neighbors from the Valley — did just that.